Heavens no. it was just they were so [i:8d33c90a96]interested[/i:8d33c90a96]!

Remember this was a time before tv, radio, and "soap operas". The average upper-middle class woman had maids to do all the housework, and spent the majority of her day on correspondence, calls, and charitable events. Imagine their response when [i:8d33c90a96]this[/i:8d33c90a96] got placed in their laps - right in their neighborhood! Of [i:8d33c90a96]course[/i:8d33c90a96] they took full advantage of it!

Teamtuna,
Does it say why the "Matrons of Washington" were created such havoc at the committee hearings?

Was it to protest the hearings, something going on in the hearing or someone?

Despite the magnificence of the caucus Room, Senator Smith (wisely) decided that perhaps acually being [i:200e5bb831]able[/i:200e5bb831] to hear the witnesses was a tad more important, so he had the hearings transferred to the Committee on Territories Conference Room, as this was another committee he headed. The matrons of Washington, after having caused such a hulabaloo on Monday, subsequently overran the hearing room when the doors were open at 10:30, knocking furniture out of the way and terrifying committee members. After they refused to leave,Smith was forced to call the Capitol Police (the sergeant-at-arms force was too small) and have them politely ejected two at a time - not so politely on some of the women's parts.

After all this, the main witnees was Frederick Fleet, who described his sighting the iceberg along with Lee, his telephoning the news down, and the subsequent collision. The committee then adjourned until the next day.

oh yes, and the stuff surrounding the hearings never gets told either!

Thanks Teamtuna,
All this is so interesting. Just when you thought you have read everything something "new" pops up. That is what makes Titanic the mystery it is today!! Don't you think

Monday April 22, 1912

The subcommittee came into the brand new caucus room of the Senate Office Building at 10:30 in the morning, only to discover there was no room for them - apparently every fashionable woman in the Capitol, dressed to the nines and carrying a sack lunch, had descended [i:933832b86b]en masse[/i:933832b86b] into the chamber, leaving no room for anyone else with the exceptions of a number of news reporters. He attempts to make an announcement, but can't hear himself, due to the fact that the chamber acoustics are so terrible, the reporter's writing sounds like a hoard of locusts (the room, done in full lavish Victorian splendor, still has the reputation of the worst acoustics in the building). Light explosions from the photographer's cameras and hand-cranks from a cinematic camera add to the din.

Senator Smith immediately goes to get the sergeant-at-arms and some assistants, who eject all the photgraphers (and the cinematographer), a good many protesting ladies (some of who used "extremely inappropriate language, given thier age and apparent station"), and move the newsmen back so that the official visitors, including many ambassadors, British Naval Attache C.F.G. Sowerby, Rep. Nicholas Longworth (Alice Roosevelt's husband), and Captain John Knapp of the U.S. hydrographic Office, among others.

Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall was the big witness of the day, and he described how , in Southampton, only two lifeboats had been tested, and also how he was responsible for noting on the chart all iceberg warnings, yet was completely ignorant of most of the ones heretofore mentioned - and that of the ones he did remember, none were near the ship's track, or he would have made a special note to tell the captain. He also mentions the 'mystery ship" about five miles away. At the conclusion of testimony, it is this last which creates the most discusion among the committee members.

Betty, a good deal of class snobbery exists even today, in the armed forces, believe it or not.


There are a lot of reasons why people can't survive on icebergs - the cold, for one, and the fact that they tip over when the lower parts melt off (most of the melting is actually done to the underpart of the berg) for another. And there's the ever-popular question of how to get onto one - these things are literally mountains of ice, with quite steep (and very silpppery) sides.

Teamtuna,
Re: the icebergs -- looking for people on them from the Inquiry. I had read something, somewhere(not much help here) as to if people were found on icebergs, or why they could not have survived on an iceberg. I cannot put my hands on where I read it or what it was. Do you remember reading or seeing anything on that subject. I have the iceberg book, but nothing in there on that subject. Not much info here

So Teamtuna, You are saying the distinction in classes still went on even after Titanic sank? You would think Lightoller had had enough of that.
I guess people never learn.

Additionally, there was a dust-up going on at the Continental Hotel, where Second officer Lightoller was insisting that the officers and crew should not be sharing the same hotel. Lightoller had his eye on the brand-new Willard Hotel, the poshest in town, where Franklin and Ismay were staying. Eventually, he agreed to stay at the Continental (one of the arguments used against him was that his Captain now slept with the remainder of the crew beneath the waves) as long as the officers were on different floors and were given different seatings at meals.